From Camera to Hard Drive in One Step
The Videonics FireStore
Imagine taping all your footage in the field and instantly editing when you get back to the Studio. No need to log your footage — it's already done! No more need to spend an hour or more just to capture an hour of footage. Now you can spend your time in the Studio editing.
When I heard that Videonics was making DV-to-HD a reality I was very excited. Capturing and logging tapes to edit has always been one of the more tedious tasks and I always thought it would be great if there was some way to capture straight to disk.
What is the FireStore?
The FireStore is a DV-to-Disk Interface. The keyword here is interface. The Firestore does not have a drive itself, it goes between your video source and a firewire hard drive. This allows you to use any firewire drive or drive kit.
Why do you want it?
Acquisition - The Firestore can be used with a battery, making it an incredible in-the-field tool. No longer are you subject to the length of a Mini-DV tape. With a 100gig drive you can capture 8hours of uninterrupted video. You can also daisy-chain up to 8 firewire drives for even longer, uninterrupted record times. Anyone taping long events will appreciate this.
Capture - The Firestore has the potential to replace a whole computer under specific circumstances. For instance, if you regularly have to capture hours of footage on your editing computer using the Firestore will free up your system by doing the capturing for you. Just hook your DV camera or deck into the Firestore and let it do the capturing for you.
Duplication - Anyone doing small batches of duplications with a few VCRs could take advantage of the Firestore and save the heads on their camera or DV deck. Just record once via DV into the Firestore and playback as many times as you want.
Kiosk - The Loop playback feature of the Firestore allows it to playback a specific video, or the entire disk, in a loop. You can even set the GPI feature and run a button to act as a Stop or Pause.
Instant Access - When you use the FireStore to capture during taping, everytime you press record/standby a new clip is created. You have instant random playback access to these clips without shuttling through a whole DV tape. You can also easily delete clips (bad takes) to save hard drive space.
Examining the FireStore
The first thing I thought when I got the Firestore was "there's room for a drive in there", so I took the unit apart. I'm amazed at how simple the insides look. Anybody with a little skill could easily adapt the unit to include a drive inside.
I decided to try the FireStore with one of the new Western Digital 100gig hard drives. And to further increase efficiency I wanted to use a drive chasis so the drive could be slid straight into the computer. So, I used an ADS Pyro Drive Kit that is approved by Videonics.
I had no problems connecting the drive with the FireStore. I just plugged in my GL1 camera to the FireStore and then the Drive into the FireStore and turned it on. Everything worked fine. Using the buttons on the front of the FireStore I told it which format I wanted to record in. I used AVI Type 2C for Canopus products.
The Firestore uses the Fat32 file format, so there is a 2gig filesize limit. Videonics has created a seamless capture which starts a new file every 1.99gigs and not a frame is dropped. I captured a one hour tape to the FireStore and was able to play it back using the VCR-like buttons on the front panel.
Now for the real test -- Live video capture!
The FireStore can be used with a battery pack, but I did not have one to try with it. Also, in order to be completely wireless the drive needs a battery or needs to draw it's power from the FireWire bus. Currently the biggest drive that can be powered from the bus is a 30gig drive.
So, I did the next best thing. The Pyro Drive kit has an onboard 50 Watt power supply which is more than enough to power a single drive and the FireStore. After a visit to RadioShack for some jacks and plugs the FireStore can now draw power from the Drive Kit. This means I only have to run one cord.
There are two ways to record live video with the FireStore and each has an advantage that I found. The first way is using the setting the FireStore into "auto" mode. This means that record will be triggered anytime the record/standby button is pressed. The main advantage to this method is that a new file is created anytime the record button is pressed. This comes in very handy when you go to edit. Since each clip is stored as a separate file there is no need to log and batch capture. The other way to capture is to use the record buttons on the FireStore itself. This is what you'll want to do if you need to capture long, uninterrupted video.
After I captured some footage I came back to the studio. By plugging the firewire drive into the computer I was able to instantly start editing! No capturing was necessary, and the files were 100% compatible with my hardware for realtime editing. For every hour of video captured with the FireStore you will save an hour by not having to digitize it into the computer.
Conclusion
I am very pleased with the FireStore. It has a lot of time saving potential and can even replace a whole machine for capturing. There are many other functions of the FireStore that can be found by accessing its menus. There is a GPI jack that can be used to trigger record/pause or single frame capture, which could be used in timelapse video. |
